Dallas, Texas - The rise of Gears of War as a competitive game continued this weekend. The first challenged to the accepted “top teams” took place. Formerly the LGD franchise was led by their Red team with the Black team being largely the disorganized younger brother. Not so this weekend as they stepped out of the shadow.

Both teams were in the shadow of vVv Vision. vVv Vision as the winner of the first Major League Gaming's - the parent company of GotFrag.com - event in Meadowlands followed that up with a victory at World Series of Video Games Dallas event a couple of weeks ago. The back to back events gave them the title as the World’s best Gears of War team in the early stages of the competitive scene.

LGD Black with a new lineup and largely a pick-up team atmosphere surprised everyone moving into the upper bracket final against vVv Vision. Initially it looked like the team would stumble losing the opening map on Mansion 3-2 to vVv. Still they responded on two maps that were not as heavily played by vVv in the earlier rounds of the tournament; Clocktower and Fuel Depot. LGD Black managed to decimate vVv in the two maps winning by a combined 6-1 score and even sweeping the Fuel Depot match 3-0.

vVv didn’t go away though coming back on Canal to win three out of the four rounds forcing a fifth and deciding map. That map would be War Machine. Early on neither team was sure how to play this critical map as Genetix of LGD Black was in a one versus one against Stones from vVv. Both players avoided contact as no advantage could be obtained for either of them. The round ended in a five minute long draw.

With no score both teams came out strong in the next two rounds. LGD Black won the first round in very quick fashion while the next round Puff from vVv flanked two members of LGD Black to help his team even the score at 1-1. vVv would tack on another round to pull ahead before strong play from LGD Black rallied to an exciting upset at 3-2 rounds win and 3-2 maps.

That wouldn’t be it for vVv though as they defeated The Last Resistance forcing another series with LGD Black for the MLG Dallas crown. With the teams having played already, the new match up with be a best of 11 series with the previous 3-2 score remaining.

The opening map was Gridlock followed by Canals and Mansion. The main theme of the maps was back to back rounds. No team would win back-to-back rounds during either of the first two maps. Still LGD Black found a way to always win the first and last round giving them the map victories. When vVv won the first round of Mansion, things started to look like they might turn around. Still Black responded with the series’ first double round win putting them ahead 2-1.

LGD Black would put it away in the final map for a 6-2 overall victory and breaking vVv’s two tournament winning streak. At the same time they upset the balance of power in Gears of War. The upset puts the question of who’s the best in Gears of War back up for debate moving forward into the rest of the 2007 season.